The biggest issue I can see with safety is to ensure you don't have any combustibles directly above the pan. Also, be cautious with your hand as an alcohol flame can burn invisible to the naked eye. Welcome to ChefTalk by the way. Take some pictures of your stew and post it over in the October monthly challenge.. it's stews!

Fire is an ineffective method to burn off alcohol, typically people don't allow the flame to burn long enough to actually eliminate the alcohol. A more surefire method is to reduce the alcohol in the pan which inherently will boil the alcohol out (lower boiling point than water) but this takes alot longer than you might think. Here's a decent link: http://io9.com/5971679/does-cooking-alcohol-really-de-booze-your-dishes